Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Once Suppressed by Sheikh Hasina, Has Recuperated

What India confronts now is a Jamaat that has learnt from the past, but like a leopard, it won't change its spots.

A Jamaat-e-Islami procession from last year. Image used for representation only. 

(Photo: Twitter)

Security has been a major element of India’s approach to Bangladesh. Given its location, bordering five states of the union, India’s prime concern is infiltration across the porous borders by hostile elements. Since the days of East Pakistan, there has been a history of Bangladesh being a launch pad for anti-Indian activity.

In the last 15 years, when Sheikh Hasina ruled the country, there was a major check on anti-Indian elements. For this reason, the one major worry that New Delhi has with the changes in Bangladesh is the re-emergence of the Islamist threat, primarily through the resurgence of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJeI), previously known as Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.

A Brief History of the Jamaat

The Jamaat is important because of its relationship with the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) which was the principal Opposition to Sheikh Hasina's Awami League. Because of this alliance, the Jamaat-e-Islami has been able to grow and consolidate itself as a major political force in the country.

Leaders of Begum Khalida Zia’s BNP have gone out of their way to assuage Indian concerns over the changes that could arise after the collapse of the Hasina government. India is “very important” to Bangladesh, said senior BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, adding that it was “high time to start a new chapter in bilateral relations.” BNP Vice Chairman Abdul Awal Mintoo said, “We are yearning to have good relations with India. Bangladesh and its people believe and see India as a friend.” Both leaders have disassociated themselves from the “India Out” campaign which was launched by Begum Khalida’s son Tarique Rehman.

Bangladesh does not lack Islamist groups. The Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the Harkat ul Jihad Islami, the Islamic State, the Hizb ut Tahrir, and other groups are all active there. But the Bangladesh Jamaat has a unique position of its own. This pro-Pakistan outfit, along with its student wing, the Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir, has been a steadfast opponent of India since the 1950s.

The Bangladesh Jamaat is an offshoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami founded in 1941. The original Jamaat opposed Partition but later gave birth to offshoots across South Asia in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, and even the rest of India. While the Indian Jamaat has remained the quietist organisation involved in religious work, its other offshoots have been active in politics.

When Bangladesh was founded, the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan split, giving rise to its Bangladeshi wing whose 'razakars' or volunteers fought alongside the Pakistani Army against the freedom movement in 1971 and were responsible for many atrocities that took place at the time, including those targeting the minority Hindu community.

Their role in the movement to restore democracy after a period of military rule in the 1980s and 1990s enabled them to re-establish their influence in the country. In 1999, it joined the BNP-led four-party alliance and won 18 seats in the 2001 elections and its leader Motiur Rahman Nizami became a minister in the government led by Begum Khalida Zia.

The Suppression of the Jamaat

In the ensuing years, India felt the impact of this. Anti-Indian elements, encouraged by Pakistan’s ISI, were given full rein, and anti-Indian terrorist and separatist elements were given sanctuary in Bangladesh. In 2007, India had given Bangladesh a list of 112 separatists from the northeast who had crossed into Bangladesh. In addition, it furnished evidence of 172 camps led by separatists in the country. The Islamist challenge threatened the authority of the BNP government as well and led to massive political turbulence.

But by 2008, the BNP government had been discredited and Sheikh Hasina swept the elections and the Jamaat was reduced to just two seats. As the Awami League consolidated its rule, along with the elements that had fought for the liberation of the country, it clashed directly with the Jamaat. In 2013, the Jamaat lost its registration as a legitimate political party through a Supreme Court ruling.

At the same time, it confronted a major challenge as the Awami League government initiated a war crimes probe into the activities of the Jamaat during the liberation war of 1971. An International Crimes Tribunal was set up to look into issues relating to genocide. Pressure was built by a massive movement of students and other protestors who called for stringent punishment for those accused of war crimes in the past.

A number of existing and former members of the Jamaat were tried and sentenced to death. Abdul Qadeer Molla was tried and executed in December 2013, and after him, several other significant Jamaat leaders were tried and executed. They include Mohammed Kamaruzzaman in April 2015, Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mohaheed in November 2015 (the former president of the Jamaat and a minister in the 1999 BNP government), Motiur Rahman Nizami in May 2016, and Mir Quasem Ali in September 2016.

The topmost leader of the Jamaat, Ghulam Azam, was sentenced to 90 years imprisonment in July 2013, though he died of a stroke a year later. Despite some protests and demonstrations, the Jamaat’s reaction was quite mild, signalling how it had been weakened.

The Resurgence of the Jamaat

The Jamaat’s twisted history from a party that opposed the freedom struggle to a major political force in the country reflects the twists and turns of Bangladesh’s history. In January 1972, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman took power as, technically, the second prime minister of the country. But within two-and-a-half years, he was assassinated in a coup on 15 August 1975.

After a few months, the Army took charge and General Zia ur Rehman ruled as a military leader, and from 1977, as president, he restored multi-party politics. He was the founder of the BNP whose government ruled till 1982, when Zia was assassinated. His successor Abdus Sattar ruled for a year before another coup and Army Chief Hussain Mohammed Ershad became the de facto leader and assumed the presidency in 1983 with his Jatiyo party.

A popular uprising led by the Awami League and the BNP led to his overthrow in 1990. The Jamaat saw an opportunity and supported the pro-democracy movement that was led by the two mainstream parties.

Parliamentary elections took place in 1991 that led to the government of Begum Khalida Zia, the widow of General Zia ur Rehman, who became the prime minister. The Jamaat won 18 seats in that election. By the end of Begum Khalida's term, there was another political upheaval as the BNP and Awami League fell out, which led to a boycott of the February 1996 elections.

Sheikh Hasina came to power. But in the 2001 elections, the BNP was back in power, this time in a formal alliance with the Jamaat. As we noted, this government ran out of steam, bringing Sheikh Hasina back to power in 2009 following her victory in the 2008 elections. Hasina then ruled for the next fifteen years in a regime that became increasingly undemocratic and unpopular till she was overthrown last month.

In its latest avatar, the Jamaat has emerged as a component of the democratic movement that has helped overthrow Sheikh Hasina. Towards the end of her rule, Hasina sought to capitalise on this by declaring that the protestors were actually 'razakars' or the descendants of the Jamaat who had committed unspeakable atrocities against the freedom fighters in 1971. But this did not cut much ice.

What India confronts now is a Jamaat that has learnt the lessons of the past well, but like a leopard, it is unlikely to change its spots. An anti-Indian agenda will remain its major plank and India worries that, like in the past, it will collaborate with the Pakistani ISI to push an active anti-Indian agenda in the country. What New Delhi has to be concerned about is the larger situation. If things stabilise and normalcy is restored in Bangladesh, then it should be fine. But if there is a prolonged period of uncertainty, anti-Indian elements are likely to show their hand once again.

(The writer is a Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. This is an opinion article and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)